Renovation work in a house has uncovered letters addressed to a British soldier of the First World War.
Research was undertaken to find possible descendants of the young man, who died at the age of 19.
With the help of Memorial 14-18, the soldier's route was traced and a great-grand-nephew was identified.
Hidden treasure. Traces of the First World War cannot be found almost every day in Hauts-de-France. Effects of soldiers, weapons, shells in the fields, the remains of missing combatants ... But the discovery made by two inhabitants of Pas-de-Calais is rarer. In the floor of a house they unearthed the personal correspondence of a young British soldier, we learned from Memorila 14-18 of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
It was on the first floor of a house on the Route Nationale, in Nœux-les-Mines, that the precious discovery was made.
In a long unoccupied apartment above a shop.
The owners of the premises decided to do some work a few weeks ago, and several objects appeared during the dismantling of the old floor.
Some ammunition and a packet of letters according to the Memorial 14-18.
"They were in good condition and dated from 1916. They were addressed to William Swift, a young English soldier and had probably been there for a century," we are told.
A great-grand-nephew found "in a few hours"
The owner of the accommodation, a teacher in a high school in Liévin, and one of his colleagues contacted the Memorial 14-18 of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette to try to retrace the path of the young soldier and try to find his descendants. Research was thus undertaken by a British historian and the Memorial teams, among others via social networks.
A craze among Internet users has made it possible to "find a great-grand-nephew of William Swift in just a few hours", we say at the Memorial.
Part of the soldier's history has also been established.
“Originally from a family of workers in Liverpool, William Swift probably got involved in 1914 by lying about his age,” explains the Memorial.
He was drafted into the Royal Lancaster Regiment and was sent to France to fight there in the summer of 1916. His regiment passed through Nœux-les-Mines, near Lens, which was then a place of cantonment.
It was at this point that the young man hid his letters.
Our file on the First War
William Swift was finally killed on May 9, 1917, east of Monchy-le-Preux, near Arras.
He was only 19 years old.
His grave was easily found in the British military cemetery of Tilloy-lès-Mofflaines where he has been buried for 104 years.
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